Current and next generation mobile and wireless communication systems, for example, LTE, LTE-A, LTE new Releases, and Fifth Generation (5G), aim at providing ubiquitous user experience with the utmost in quality. To this end, flexible network deployment is desired, in particular the flexibility to increase the network capacity and/or to extend a cell coverage on demand.
One approach known in the state of the art for providing coverage and/or capacity is to deploy fixed small cells, for example picocells, femtocells, and relay nodes overlaid by macrocells. These small cells may be deployed by operators at certain locations with power supply facilities, and the locations can be determined, for example, via network planning. Access nodes of the small cells are usually well elevated (e.g., 5 m), which reduces the impact of fading, for example, on the wireless backhaul link of relay nodes. Macrocells can also provide a backhaul link to relay nodes, for example, in LTE-A Type 1 relay node deployments (in 3GPP TR36.814 v9.0.0). In case of picocells, the backhaul can be provided by wired connections, e.g., fiber, or by wireless connections, e.g., microwave links.
Another approach known in the state of the art for providing temporal service provisioning is the use of movable relays. Operator-owned movable relays can be moved to a pre-determined service region, and can then be directly activated (e.g., manual control). Further, operator-owned moving relays, as for instance described in 3GPP TR 36.836 v12.0.0, can be mounted on public transportation vehicles or high-speed trains, in order to serve passengers or users on the road or at bus stations.
In the aforementioned approaches, operators typically have the ownership of the wireless access nodes, and can control the availability of the access nodes. When the access nodes are activated, they typically perform a registration process continuously, until they are granted by the network.
A promising technology targeted for flexible network deployment bases on Nomadic Nodes, NNs. An NN is a preferably a movable access node, which can provide coverage extension and/or capacity improvement on demand. NNs can be mounted on vehicles, for example, within a car-sharing fleet.
However, NNs are associated with some uncertainty with regards to their availability, i.e. whether an NN is or is not available in a target service region that requires on-demand increase of network capacity and/or extension of the cell coverage area. The uncertainty is, for instance, caused by human behavior (e.g., drivers). That is, human behavior determines the location of vehicles, and can only be predicted to some extent (e.g. a parking lot around a shopping mall for a given day time). Therefore, in case of NN operation, the network needs to take decisions on-the-fly, which cope with this uncertainty.
A flexible backhaul may be needed to be employed, wherein the capacity of the backhaul link can play a crucial role in the end-to-end user performance. The backhaul of a nomadic node NN can be realized via a wireless connection, e.g., in-band half-duplex operation and/or out-band full-duplex operation, as well as wired connection, e.g., while the nomadic node battery is being charged. In case of a wireless connection, the backhaul link can be served by a base station (BS). A BS can be a macro BS or micro BS considering, e.g., inter-site distance (ISD), and a pico BS, e.g., considering the cell size. There can be multiple BSs in a region by which the backhaul link of the nomadic node NN can be served.
Accordingly, an automated operation of a dynamic network, in which NNs do not necessarily belong to and fully configured by the operator (e.g., nomadic nodes form a private wireless network) and NNs occasionally change locations and availability, is challenging. In particular, NN activation and the corresponding process should be carried out in an automated manner without additional manual control, as for instance by network planning teams, in order to increase the operation efficiency. Operation efficiency is particularly important given that NNs may operate on vehicle battery. That means, the capacity of a vehicle battery needs to be shared appropriately between conventional vehicle functions and NN functions, and NNs should be activated on demand, for instance based on target service requirements in a target service region, nomadic node capabilities and the backhaul link qualities toward possible serving access nodes, in order to optimize the achievable gains. In addition, since the activation of NNs depends on the availability of other NNs in the target service region, a tight coordination is needed to provide uninterrupted service.